Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Prune an arch into it, below.
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Pruned arches were a take away from all my historic garden design study tours across Europe for decades. Especially nice is using the 'pruned arch', not only 'saving' an existing 'bad' landscape, but saving the plant too.
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Often, mid-century, & newer, subdivision homes are completed with a front foundation planting of green meatballs, and a larger 'something' at left/right corners. Those corner 'somethings' lend themselves for pruning an arch into. Not always, but often enough.
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Whether designing on site, or long distance, the moment pruning an arch is mentioned, the light bulb moment with my client is pure joy to experience. What had been a problem, gains an easy, pretty, functional solution, and likely saving the plant/s from execution.

Pic,above, here.
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More than the pruned arch, above, this lone garden pic is a Garden Design class.
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Ceiling, walls, floor, stone set into gravel, furniture in the garden, contrasting foliage color/texture, pot cluster subsidiary focal point at the focal point of the door, pruning, flow, mystery. scale, timelessness, invitation, simplicity,
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Am designing a family cemetery plot now. At its entry a pair of Japanese maples 'Bloodgood', pruned into an arch. 'Pruning', a layer of the design.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
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First putting pencil to paper with the cemetery plot, tougher than expected. I know the family, designed their backyard. Surviving spouse wants the plot to look like their backyard. Much. Tougher.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Winter. Design your garden for winter, and it will be pretty all year.
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Terra cotta pot, below, stopped my eyes/heart/head. Hmm. Never seen this particular Garden Design effect. In this particular moment, below, the terra cotta looks like a movie effect, not real, injected artificially.
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These are the moments, exactly this. Design, plant, time passes, wait for the exact right weather event, poof voila, you have, below.
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These are my moments of choice. Dancing with Nature. And knowing it, while in the dance. In the moment of awareness, feet are not tethered to Earth, time no longer a force, only the oneness of pure atonement. Joseph Campbell writes of it much better, "If you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere."

Friday, April 8, 2016

Off the edge of perfect, below, beyond perfect.
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Have never understood the predilection for oversized lights at a front door. Studying historic gardens across Europe for decades, diminutive lighting, compared to USA, is the memo.
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Tara Turf, below, to the foundation. Alone, enough to instigate a nastygram from any HOA. Here's the deal with Tara Turf, it's a rich way to live, according to Providence. And me.
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Opulent patina, not pressure washed away, on the walls, below.

Pic, above, here.
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Who knew I would ever think a collection of little green meatballs was charming? Indeed, these are. Here, they are a whimsical pun. You already thought the same thing, right?
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The pair of small spheres. Swoon. Their plinths, double swoon.
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Notice the climbing roses? Not the physical plant but what they do for the design. Taking very little space, espaliered, they give maximum lush.
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Tiny gravel, above, color of the house, drifting into most-of-a-circle tiny flagstone, again colored to the house, terrace. With no edging between gravel/plants or gravel/flagstones. Your already picked up on this huge detail, edging, right?
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Enfilade, above, is something we have at our ca. 1900 American farmhouse. Ours, 80' long, with heart of pine floor, I'll have to figure out how to get the shot, we even have the trees in back, but our pond is behind the trees.
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Our house, now, has a small gravel parking court in front, we kept the previous owner's half-round of bricks at the front steps. Unbelievable, the vernacular language is the same, this home, above, and ours.
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This front door, above, says the most important thing, "Welcome." And, "You want to come inside, this house is interesting, the people who live here I want to know and see more, the garden, and....."
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
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Beloved is a pressure washing fool. One of these days, at present I leave the premises when he pressure washes, I will stand my ground, and instead of crime scene tape outlining a body on the ground, Beloved will pressure wash around my body on the wall of our home. If this were our home, above, I know his pressure washer would have something 'wrong' with it each time he tries to use it. Buy a new one? It would have something 'wrong', always, too.

Monday, December 30, 2013

Miraculously, from the opposite direction the columns say the same thing.
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No matter the size or budget of a garden, there are no exits. Only entries. And, the more entries a garden has the better the garden. With one of the most potent garden design tools in your quiver, contrasting formal-informal. Ceiling-walls-floors are also beautifully done, above, with great drama at the enfilade.
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No, this is not a simple entry.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Of course I want the dimensions of how far apart the columns are, heights, etc....
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Pic I Love Your Style.
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

In the garden you know exactly what type of arbor is required, below. Arched, 3' deep, iron, creating an enfilade punctuated with an urn on plinth matching the one below.

Repetition, is one of your strongest design tools in the garden. Maximized with interior repetition.
.Color & pattern, very easy to copy from this room into the garden.
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I never tire of a client saying, "I love that." Exactly, I copied it from their interior. Yes, it's that simple.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic via Cote de Texas. Why an iron arbor to match? Contrast. Yet, if the client wanted heavy cottage style I might do the wood.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

This rarely happens, above. The backdrop is gorgeous. And not a bit of it is theirs.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic same garden as yesterday's post. Backdrop? Mostly it's neighbor's driveways, air-conditioners......

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Shrubs, trees & flowers.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic My French Country Home. What is better than contrasting foxgloves with mophead hydrangeas? Several Italian cypress are going in a garden today. The gravel courtyard is round and the nearby crape myrtles arc in silhouette.
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Hosta, fern & hellebore are my shade trinity and contrast to extreme. Tara's Trinity of the Southern Garden: Azalea, Camellia, Hydrangea. Contrast AND keeps something in bloom every day of the year in your garden.